//------------------------------// // Strange Acquaintances // Story: Deathrattle // by MaritoEconomico //------------------------------// The next days were normal for everyone in Ponyville, even if the six girls kept noticing that Shadow still never used his wings, no matter what; one day, trying to force him to use them, Pinkie Pie and Applejack even asked Shadow to recover a ball that they had thrown up on a tree; but instead to help them he started a debate, on why he had to do so and on the fact that the two girls were able for sure to recover the ball themselves, the debate ended when Nekuro, appearing from nowhere, gave the ball to Shadow who handed it to Applejack without the girls even noticed the cat had approached the tree; so the girls decided to give up trying to discover the secret of this little strangeness. Rarity was contemplating satisfied the sketches of her last work when she heard knocking on the front door “This must be Shadow who has ended.” she thought; she had hired Shadow to fix a pipeline in the garden for three coppers. Rarity was already opening the door when she noticed Opalescence, her cat, jumping onto the desk where her sketches were “Opalescence!” she screamed “I’ve already told you not to do a mess with my work!” “I’ve finished, can I have my money as agreed?” Rarity heard, recognizing immediately the voice of Shadow but too distracted by Opalescence to watch towards him. “Here it is.” said distracted Rarity handing the three coins to Shadow, determined to catch Opalescence as soon as possible; but as she turned her back to Shadow she realized that she had seen something unacceptable “In the name of Celestia! What have you done!?!” she shouted turning suddenly at Shadow “You are a disaster!” Shadow confused looked at himself and his clothes completely covered with dirt as a result of his work “I’m just a bit dirty, but your reaction is a quiet excessive, I just need to go home and wash the clothes, after that everything will be ok.” “Absolutely not!” exclaimed Rarity resolute “I simply can’t accept, and neither allow, that you roam around the city in this awful condition!” she said anxious with such a drama that Shadow though that she would have laid on a couch, if only there was one within reach, “Let me help you with this mess.” Rarity proposed to Shadow dragging him inside without any hesitation. “What? No! Really ,it isn’t necessary,” Shadow tried to refuse Rarity proposal, even if he didn’t dare to physically resist her, “it will take me just…” “Nonsense! Now let me do my work, you don’t have anything to worry, after all you are in the hands of the best stylist of all Equestria!” Rarity reassured Shadow as they walked into the room where her works were shoiwn “You are going to be spectacular! You will see!” she kept saying picturing already the best outfit for Shadow as she was trying to undress him starting from his dirty shirt. Shadow, completely caught out of guard from that situation, at first tried to resist to Rarity then realizing that she wouldn’t quit with that madness , he gave up “Alright, alright you ‘ve won!” he shouted red-faced for embarrassment, “You can wash my shirt if you really want! Just show me a dressing room where I can undress.” he ended clutching himself in order to show his resolution. Obviously Nekuro was looking at that scene from the very start, and in that moment he was enjoying very much that awkward series of events. “With pleasure!” smiled Rarity satisfied of that arrangement and conducting Shadow to a dressing room in her shop. After a few seconds; Shadow, still red-faced, opened the door just enough to throw the dirty clothes to Rarity, who was waiting outside the door, and irritated he shouted “Here they are! Are you happy now?” then in a lower voice he said “Now would you mind hurrying up, please? I don’t feel comfortable this way!” “He is even shyer than Fluttershy.” thought Rarity unable to withhold a malicious smile as she picked his clothes up, but while she was holding them she surprised thought “What kind of fabric is this? I’ve never seen or touched anything similar!” then pushed by curiosity and also worried to damage the clothes she asked Shadow “Do I have to wash them in some special way? Are they made with a kind of delicate fabric?” “You can just put them in a bowl full with cold water, and they will wash themselves.” answered Shadow still uncomfortable; that’s not exactly the answered that Rarity was looking for but she decided to give up the topic for the moment, first of all she had to rescue those poor clothes from dirt.. And so Rarity did as Shadow had told her. She put the clothes in a bowl full of cold of water and after a couple of minutes she decided to pick the shirt up to check how they were. “Incredible!” she exclaimed as she saw that the shirt was perfectly clean, without any trace of dirt, but her surprise didn’t end there “And it’s almost dry already.” “Extraordinary, isn’t it?” Rarity heard the calm voice of Shadow behind her. Rarity surprised turned around and saw Shadow at the entrance of the room completely dressed up, with shirt and jeans identical to those she was washing at the moment; Shadow smiling happily walked towards her and said proudly “And this isn’t all: this fabric is also breathable, water-resistant, thermal insulating and tear-resistant; and it’s so comfortable that I can easily sleep with all the clothes on.” “Impressive!” exclaimed Rarity without any reason not to believe him “Bur I’ve never heard of such a fabric in my life, tell me who invented it?” she asked anxious, already imagining all the fantastic dresses she could make with a so versatile and light fabric; suddenly her reputation for Shadow raised, he wasn’t as raw as she had thought when they first met. “invented?” asked a bit confused Shadow “You must have guessed wrong, these clothes are hundred percent natural, no one invented it.” he explained smiling pointing to both the clothes he was wearing and the ones in the hands of Rarity. “Such things dson’t exist!” almost shouted Rarity shocked. “Free to think so, but I know what I’m wearing.” cut short Shadow not very interested to start a useless debate. “Anyway… where these clothes come from?” asked Rarity haughty pointing to the clothes that Shadow was wearing then, trying to take back control of the situation. “Nekuro went home and took them for me.” answered Shadow innocently looking at his clothes trying to find a reason for the tone of Rarity. “And your clothes look all the same?” kept going Rarity mocking Shadow. “Do you have any problem with that?!” exclaimed Shadow embarrassed by that meaningful tone “It was cheaper this way!” “Sooo why don’t you bring me some of this fabric you are talking about?” asked Rarity with her eyes sparkling for the excitement “Then I can take care of this little problem.” proposed taking the opportunity that she was able to create. “No way.” replied Shadow roughly, regaining immediately his coolness, and showing perfectly his resolution on that topic. “What? Why not?” asked Rarity disappointed by Shadow’s behaviour and thinking about the failure of her plan “I could make fabulous dresses with this.” she grumbled sad. “I’ve no doubt about that, really.” said Shadow trying to raise Rarity’ spirit “I’m sorry but I don’t want that someone else comes to know this type of clothes.” he said trying to give a motivation to his denial. “What does it mean?” asked Rarity confused “Everyone would love to buy something so refined.” she tried to convince Shadow. “The truth is that the raw materials are located in a pretty dangerous place without the right knowledge, and I don’t want to feel responsible if someone hurts himself.” explained Shadow in the hope of a quick ending of that conversation. “But there must be some way I can have that fabric! Right?” almost cried Rarity for the anxiety, refusing to accept the fact that she would not be able to use that fabric, as she now knew of its existence. “Well, there may be a possibility, I suppose that I could take the raw material myself and…” started to say Shadow, understanding that Rarity would never give up. “Oh thank you! Thank you!” Rarity jumped incredibly happy trying to hug Shadow for the excitement. Shadow nimbly avoided the hug relieved because they had come to a conclusion, but he said seriously “But only under specific and necessary conditions: you mustn’t sell the dresses you are going to make, use them for fairs and shows or either tell anyone how you got the fabric.” with a tone that showed clearly his resolution and decision about his conditions. “Whaat?!?” shouted Rarity dumbfounded almost unbelieving to her own hears “And what should I use them for then?” she asked indignant by the dictatorial conditions of Shadow that had left her with no possibility to use the fabric to make the beautiful dresses she had thought to, apart from leaving them in the dust somewhere. After thinking for a while Shadow came up with a good and simply solution “Fluttershy told me that you are going to the Grand Galloping Gala, so you could create your dresses with this fabric, in this way they will be the most perfect, so not only you would be pleased but also all the other Elements of Harmony.” After thinking about this for a while Rarity said “Ok, I suppose it will be fine this way.” happy to have found something good to use for the dresses she was going to make but still a bit sad for the restriction not to show them to anyone else. “Perfect!” replied Shadow very happy to have come to another arrangement, then after a quick mental calculation he said “In this case it will be twenty silver coins for the fabric for each dress.” he wasn’t sure of the right price for what he was selling, since he had no experience in fabrics and clothes sales but he thought it was a good estimation. “Twenty!?!” shouted Rarity surprised by the high price “I sell silk dresses for ten silver coins! How can it be so expensive?” she said thinking that anyone else would have felt indignant if she had to pay that price for a usual supply, but since she was talking to Shadow she felt generous enough to let it go, obviously the fact that they were talking about a new and fantastic fabric had nothing to do with such a generosity. “Really?” asked Shadow who hadn’t paid attention to the shop prices and, if he had taken into consideration them he could have asked twice the price “Anyway I can assure you that’s a reduced price. And I’d like to have half price paid now and half to work done, you know for consumables and others things.” he ended smiling friendly. “Fine.” said Rarity still not totally convinced by Shadow’s speech but decided to have that fabric. “I’m going to leave tomorrow and it will take me four days,” Shadow informed Rarity “in the meanwhile I would suggest you to create some sketches, I will not be able to bring you enough fabric for two dresses each.” Shadow was walking in a very ancient and gloomy forest, the big trees looked heavy and weary to the monstrous cobwebs, filled by bones and prey’s corpses, that were covering them but nothing of these things really bothered Shadow who in that moment was trying to remember the name of that forest unsuccessfully, but even this was something unimportant. The only thing that he cared was that there he would have found the fabric for Rarity. From Ponyville a normal volante would have taken almost a week to reach the forest but Shadow managed to reach it in less than two days. In contrast with Shadow’s calmness Nekuro was instead very anxious “Meow?” he asked to Shadow almost shivering. “You should know better than me that we are close,” said Shadow keeping calm “and one more thing, I’m warning you right now but I’m going to use my coupon, and you are not going to like it.” he said looking at Nekuro with an evil smile. “Meow?” asked Nekuro showily gulping even more anxious than before. “Fine.” consented Shadow a bit bothered but unable to say nothing to his cat; and so satisfied Nekuro climbed up on Shadow’s leg and hid himself between Shadow’s shirt and T-shirt from undesired glances. So Shadow kept walking through the forest always looking around trying to find what he was there for, but he found almost nothing rather than cobwebs and bones, suddenly he saw something out of space: an equestrian’s skull, apparently someone had gone there for some unknown reason and obviously didn’t end well, but apart from this consideration no other thought or feeling touched Shadow who impassive stared at it for a couple of seconds. Shadow was about to continue his walk when suddenly he heard a tempting voice behind him “What a pleasant surprise! I would never imagined to see an equestrian today, and particularly not you.” Shadow turned around, ready to face the source of those words with a ready answer; but when he saw the naked female figure behind a bush Shadow blushed and covering his eyes with his right hand agitated exclaimed “Aracne! Please, could you put something on at least?” “Shy as always, aren’t you?” giggled Aracne, who was a unique creature: her top half was mostly human, while her bottom half was a huge spider. Then amused by Shadow’s reaction covered her breast with some web that she created on the spot, “Happy now? I bet that you are still virgin, right sugar cube?” she provoked him with a malicious smile. “That’s nothing of your business!!” shouted Shadow very embarrassed and blushing even more shooting an angry glance to Aracne, who seemed not to have any intention to stop chuckling. Deciding that it was enough, Aracne watched around, like she was looking for something, but soon she exclaimed ashamed “Look at this place! It’s all a mess! I’m sorry but I don’t receive visits very often.” “I wonder why.” joked Shadow glancing the skull of the equestrian behind him and kicking slightly some of the bones to his feet. “I wonder it too.” said Aracne thoughtful unable to catch Shadow’ sarcasm, or just ignoring it, “But back to us again, what brought you here?” she asked interested by that unexpected visit to her home “Don’t tell me that your clothes got tighter already! You know that it’s a pain to sew all of them.” she complained recalling all the clothes that she created for Shadow during his life. “No, it’s not about that,” Shadow reassured Aracne “but still I’m here for your skill web, the kind that you use for your eggs.” he said smiling cordial, happy to have finally been able to obtain Rarity’ s commission.